Colossal (2016)

I loved this twisted sci-fi comedy about an alcoholic who discovers that she is both a monster terrorizing Seoul, Korea, but also her loser self in upstate New York; sort of Godzilla meets The Hangover. No surprise that Anne Hathaway (last blogged for Interstellar) is terrific in this role, Gloria, especially if you saw Rachel Getting Married. Fun fact: she was in her second trimester of pregnancy (it was a boy whose father is Hathaway's husband Adam Shulman) during the shoot. I never noticed any bump, but there are plenty of special effects in the movie, and, now that I think about it, Gloria frequently wears hiphugger pants with loose tops. Dan Stevens (profiled in Beauty and the Beast) as Tim, Jason Sudeikis (most recently in these pages for Sleeping with Other People, although we saw Race after it) as Oscar, and Austin Stowell (he was in Whiplash and played Francis Gary Powers in Bridge of Spies) as Joel all play important roles in Gloria's life. And Tim Blake Nelson (covered in The Homesman) does a nice job as barfly Garth.

Spanish director/writer Nacho Vigalondo (new to me, he has made three other features and many shorts, one of which was Oscar-nominated) is to be congratulated for an inventive story (although the makers of the 2014 Godzilla remake sued for similarities but they settled) that takes a turn in the second act. It's a nice touch that Gloria constantly plays with her hair, with a nice payoff early in the movie.

Though I confidently wrote upstate New York, due to Gloria's leaving New York City and moving to her hometown "up here," it was shot in Vancouver (and Seoul).

Composer Bear McReary (last scored 10 Cloverfield Lane) gives us spooky music which can be streamed from this link.

Not highly rated on Rotten Tomatoes (78 critics and 68% audiences), it will be in these parts another week and here's a list of theatres screening it nationwide. The DVD release date hasn't been announced yet, though Amazon would be happy to take your $29.98 for a pre-order (I'm not linking that page, due to spoilers and haters in the comments). If you can't make it to a big screen, try to remember to see it later on a small one.